Panels to monitor slum work

Civil works to provide water to 96 slums will begin in January: BWSSB.

Civil works to provide water to 96 slums in the city will start in January and is expected to be completed by September 2013, Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board’s chief engineer (Cauvery project) Narayan said on Friday.

On the sidelines of a seminar on ‘Implementation of BWSSB’s Slum Development Component of the Japan International Corporation Agency (JICA)’ at Jain University, Narayan told reporters that the project took off a year and half ago. The BWSSB will soon start the civil works.

The project, which had identified 265 slums, has finished the social mobilisation survey through four NGOs. “We have time till June 2016, but we will try to finish it before September 2013,” he said.

As the project falls under JICA, the BWSSB had invited tenders and finalised a company to implement the `39-crore project. “We have opened the technical bids now. We will start work on the slum development programme in January,” Narayan said.

When asked about the delay in the civil works, BWSSB officials said, “We had to work along with Cauvery fourth stage project and hence it got delayed.”
WatSan committees for slums

To raise awareness about the project and sanitation, the BWSSB will be appointing ‘WatSan’ committees, which will have slum residents as members. “Slum residents would rather listen to their neighbours than an official or outsider telling them about water and sanitation,” the BWSSB official explained.

WatSan committees were tried as pilot projects in Cement Huts Colony near Lalbagh and in Chandra Colony near West of Chord Road. “These were success stories. WatSan members helped in solving problems regarding water and sanitation,” explained T Venkat Raju, BWSSB engineer-in-chief.